PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

This study evaluated the performance of the official tourism Twitter accounts of the four major tourist destinations in Southeast Asia namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. By using a data analytical software, the study collected data related to the number of tweets, number of interactions, engagement rate, number of followers, number of potential reaches and viral reach from the accounts during an observation of one month of the observation period. A series of correlation analyses was conducted in order to reveal associations among the variables with tourism performance indicators namely, the amount of receipt and also the travel and tourism competitiveness index. The results of the study show that Thailand’s official Twitter account generates the highest number of tweets and interactions, while Singapore’s account was found to be the least productive account. Despite the low level of productivity, the account recorded the highest number of engagement rates. Moreover, Indonesia’s account was found to be the account with the highest number of followers, potential reach, and viral reach. Results of correlation tests revealed that the number of interactions was significantly associated with the number of international receipts while engagement rates correlated significantly with the travel and tourism competitiveness index. Finally, conclusions for scientific and practical purposes are proposed.